And just like that, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago’s 2018/19 Season came to a close! Some highlights from last season included CSO-Connect, residencies at Illinois Youth Center Chicago (IYCC) and BRAVE Youth Leaders, team community […]

After the CSO strike ended, the music and liveliness finally came back to Orchestra Hall. And after seven enduring weeks, our Civic Orchestra finally set foot back in Symphony Center. Just as important, we were […]

While I was walking to an offsite event at the Woman’s Athletic Club – the historic, French-style classical building located on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile – I received a message that the CSO had reached a […]

The second half of February was filled with opportunities for the Civic Fellow to learn and teach. We were excited to attend the first workshop of the Civic Orchestra’s collaboration with Mocrep, a Chicago-based performing […]

While contemplating the problem of women’s underrepresentation in orchestra seasons (see Part 1 here), I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-in-Residence Missy Mazzoli. Mazzoli has one of […]

When I began researching the kinds of programs the Civic Orchestra of Chicago engages in, I noticed that most of them focused on taking people and ideas from Symphony Center and bringing them out into […]

Now in its fourth season, CSO-Connect is a partnership program between the CSO and Chicago Public Schools that functions as a professional development program for CPS teachers from arts and non-arts classrooms. The program focuses […]

Following a fantastic Civic Orchestra concert with Bramwell Tovey conducting Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, the Civic Fellows went straight back to work with a 10 AM rehearsal the next day. Why were we so eager to […]

In January 1980, Northwestern University’s black student organization protested the final performance of Julius Eastman’s residency. Many aspects of the 40-year-old composer’s budding career–which included a degree from the Curtis Institute, a position as Creative […]

2019 started and we’re not wasting any time. The Civic Fellows met on January 8 to regroup after the holidays. Our break was spent memorizing music for our CSO-Connect presentation. We are learning selections of […]

Immediately following the Civic Fellows’ Purpose Over Pain project with Sara and Rex of the Irene Taylor Trust (read more here), we joined the rest of our Civic colleagues for an intense concert cycle with […]

Try to picture a silent holiday: you walk through a busy shopping mall with all of the holiday decorations, but music is absent. You try to decorate the Christmas tree with family members, but music […]

Following a very relaxing Thanksgiving, the fellows began their project with Sara Lee and Rex Horan of the Irene Taylor Trust and residency with Purpose Over Pain. Our collaborators from The Irene Taylor Trust, Artistic […]

…because there aren’t very many of them. This gender imbalance isn’t limited to conducting — systemic sexism is alive and well in the field of classical music. According to research compiled by Classic FM radio […]

The past few weeks have been full of educational and eye-opening experiences. Beginning with a masterclass led by famed Chicago Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Robert Chen, Civic Orchestra musicians were given a chance to hear our […]

On Tuesday, October 23, the Civic Orchestra performed Mahler’s Symphony No.6 and Ogonek’s All These Lighted Things – that latter of which was commissioned and world-premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra last season. Out concert was under […]

The Civic Season has begun in earnest. Two fun and full weeks began on October 8 when the Civic Fellows drove up to beautiful Camp Wandawega in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, for some much-needed bonding, brainstorming, and […]

The Civic Orchestra was founded 100 seasons ago by music director Frederick Stock — where does the time go!? Our centennial season started out appropriately, performing a Concert for Chicago for over 10,000 people in […]

Far too often, our sense of self-worth and success as musicians are inextricably linked to each other. But this can be dangerous since it easily could lead to serious mental health problems. I know this […]

What is it like to hear the music of J.S. Bach translated into other musical languages? What are the challenges inherent in re-composing in this way? These are some of the questions that motivated Music […]

The Civic Orchestra of Chicago is proud to announce the 2018/19 class of Civic Fellows. Throughout the season, in addition to playing alongside their colleagues in the Civic Orchestra, the fellows will perform chamber music […]

We spent much of the month of May balancing several different projects simultaneously, as usual. After a few rare days completely off, we started up again with chamber music rehearsals in preparation for our performance […]

Programming the music of J.S. Bach in tandem with modern and contemporary works is a common practice. One would not be surprised to hear, for example, Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 (c. 1715) followed by […]

My 2017/18 season as a Civic Orchestra Fellow has been a life-changing opportunity. This is due, in large part, to my amazing colleagues in the fellowship. They have taught, inspired, and moved me in all […]

Spring finally arrived, and so did the time for the fellows to begin carrying out our community group projects. The South Side community engagement group, which included Alex, Alice, Roslyn, Maria, and myself, went on […]

Does it ever end? The seemingly eternal winter we find ourselves in coincides almost too perfectly with the packed plate of rehearsals, concerts, workshops, school visits, and even more rehearsals the Civic Fellows were served […]

Preparing a performance of classical music is often very technique-focused, simply because our instruments are so difficult to operate and the task of coordinating a crowd of musicians into a functional ensemble is so overwhelming. […]

As part the CSOA’s Initiative for a More Peaceful Chicago, on Sunday, March 18, the Negaunee Music Institute at the CSO presented a concert of thirteen original songs written by parents of Purpose Over Pain […]

Late February and early March proved to be one of the busiest times of the season for the Civic Fellows. After months of hard work memorizing, scripting, and choreographing (yes, you read that right!) our […]

Over the past few weeks I’ve worked with, and performed for, hundreds of kids in Chicago. They’ve ranged in age from six to 18 years old, and from no musical background to intensive musical training. […]

By far one of the biggest, and most fulfilling, projects the Civic Fellows do each year is CSO Connect. This is a far-reaching program that brings together the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, its partner schools, and […]

The CSO-Connect project is at the very heart of our work as Civic Fellows. This project gives me chills and, fresh off a Winter Olympic-high from watching Chloe Kim and Shaun White represent the USA […]

Early February represented a period of relative calm for the Civic Orchestra and Fellows compared to the bustle and excitement of the previous few weeks. January came to a close with the latest in a […]

The Civic Orchestra of Chicago and Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Yo-Yo Ma are traveling to Greencastle, Indiana, for a three-day residency at DePauw University. The residency (September 29 – October 1) includes an […]